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48-908: The Palace of Moncloa is part of the Moncloa Complex, which includes 16 buildings, a bunker and a hospital. The Ministry of the Presidency , the Deputy Prime Minister's Office , the Cabinet Office , the Chief of Staff's Office and the Press Office are all located at this complex. The weekly meetings of the Council of Ministers are also held at the complex, in the Council Building . In Spain, 'Moncloa'

96-666: A monastery . It is currently the headquarters of the Ministry of the Presidency . Inside of the INIA building takes place the meetings of the General Commission of Secretaries of State and Undersecretaries, the body responsible for preparing the matters to be discussed in the Council of Ministers. It was built in 1950 as another branch of the Ministry of Agriculture , formerly the laboratory where seeds were analyzed. When

144-476: A pillbox can be killed with flamethrowers . Complex, well-built and well-protected fortifications are often vulnerable to attacks on access points. If the exits to the surface can be closed off, those manning the facility can be trapped. The fortification can then be bypassed. Famous bunkers include the post-World War I Maginot Line on the French eastern border and Czechoslovak border fortifications mainly on

192-453: A house is purpose-built with a bunker, the normal location is a reinforced below-ground bathroom with fiber-reinforced plastic shells. Bunkers deflect the blast wave from nearby explosions to prevent ear and internal injuries to people sheltering in the bunker. Nuclear bunkers must also cope with the underpressure that lasts for several seconds after the shock wave passes, and block radiation . A bunker's door must be at least as strong as

240-401: A house is purpose-built with a bunker, the normal location is a reinforced below-ground bathroom with large cabinets. One common design approach uses fibre-reinforced plastic shells. Compressive protection may be provided by inexpensive earth arching. The overburden is designed to shield from radiation. To prevent the shelter from floating to the surface in high groundwater, some designs have

288-570: A museum. The Palace was destroyed during the Siege of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War . A decade after its destruction, the architect Diego Méndez built, between 1949 and 1953, the present building following the model of the Casa del Labrador of Aranjuez . Then it was destined to official residence of heads of State in visits to Spain and high personalities. By a law of July 15, 1954,

336-400: A narrow, 1–2-metre (3.5–6.5 ft), flexible tent of thin wood is placed in a deep trench, and then covered with cloth or plastic, and then covered with 1–2 m (3.5–6.5 feet) of tamped earth. A large ground shock can move the walls of a bunker several centimeters in a few milliseconds. Bunkers designed for large ground shocks must have sprung internal buildings to protect inhabitants from

384-515: A part of a trench system. Such bunkers give the defending soldiers better protection than the open trench and also include top protection against aerial attack. They also provide shelter against the weather. Some bunkers may have partially open tops to allow weapons to be discharged with the muzzle pointing upwards (e.g., mortars and anti-aircraft weapons). Many artillery installations, especially for coastal artillery , have historically been protected by extensive bunker systems. These usually housed

432-654: A reinforced concrete shelter" is first recorded on 13 October 1939, in "A Nazi field gun hidden in a cemented 'bunker' on the Western front". All the early references to its usage in the Oxford English Dictionary are to German fortifications. However, in the Far East the term was also applied to the earth and log positions built by the Japanese, the term appearing in a 1943 instruction manual issued by

480-522: A skirt held down with the overburden. It may also serve the purpose of a safe room . Large bunkers are often bought by super rich individuals in case of political instability , and usually store or access large amounts of energy for use. They are sometimes refereed to as "luxury bunkers," and their locations are often documented. Munitions storage bunkers are designed to securely store explosive ordnance and contain any internal explosions. The most common configuration for high explosives storage

528-637: A tour through the Palace with the children of the employees of the complex. The requirements to visit the governmental complex is to be a Spanish citizen or to live in Spain, ask for a date, show the guards your ID, and leave in the entrance all electronic devices. The security of the complex is carried out by the Department of Security of the Presidency of the Government, a government body responsible for

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576-417: Is an unusually large number of bunkers because of a law requiring protective shelters to be constructed for all new buildings since 1963, as well as a number of bunkers built as part of its National Redoubt military defense plan. Some of Switzerland's bunkers have since become tourist attractions housing hotels and museums such as Sasso San Gottardo Museum. The Soviet Union maintained huge bunkers (one of

624-513: Is sometimes used as a metonym for the central government, especially when contrasting with the governments of the Autonomous Communities . The Moncloa Palace was originally a farm for agricultural use, which, due to its good situation, later became a palace-house. In 1660 it was bought by Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, Marquis of Carpio and Eliche, owner of the neighboring orchard of La Moncloa, a name that came from its former owners,

672-497: Is the igloo shaped bunker. They are often built into a hillside in order to provide additional containment mass. A specialized version of the munitions bunker called a Gravel Gertie is designed to contain radioactive debris from an explosive accident while assembling or disassembling nuclear warheads . They are installed at all facilities in the United States and United Kingdom which do warhead assembly and disassembly,

720-657: The British Indian Army and quickly gaining wide currency. By 1947 the word was familiar enough in English that Hugh Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler was describing Hitler's underground complex near the Reich Chancellery as "Hitler's own bunker" without quotes around the word bunker. This type of bunker is a small concrete structure, partly dug into the ground, which is usually

768-547: The Cold War for weapons facilities, command and control centers, and storage facilities. Bunkers can also be used as protection from tornadoes . Trench bunkers are small concrete structures, partly dug into the ground. Many artillery installations, especially for coastal artillery , have historically been protected by extensive bunker systems. Typical industrial bunkers include mining sites, food storage areas, dumps for materials, data storage, and sometimes living quarters. When

816-795: The East Wing of the White House serves as a secure shelter and communications center for the President of the United States in case of an emergency. 1. abmm.org : Australian Bunker And Military Museum 2. BunkerBlog : All about German fortifications 1933-1945 3. Bunkersite.com : About bunkers built by the Germans during 1933–1945 in the whole of Europe 4. German bunkers in Poland : Fortified Front Odra-Warta rivers, Boryszyn Loop Bonsai Too Many Requests If you report this error to

864-659: The National Heritage . The main room of the building is the Council Room, where the meetings of the Council of Ministers are held. The Tapestry Room is one of the biggest rooms in the building. It is used for receptions, official events and, occasionally, for press conferences. The Tàpies Room is an area where the Prime Minister receives guests. It is one of the newest buildings of the Complex. It

912-611: The Counts of Monclova, which later gave rise to Moncloa, as know today. When the two gardens were joined, Gaspar de Haro had a palace built on the highest part of the land, known first as Eliche's Palace and also as Painted House, in reference to the frescoes that adorned the exterior walls, and later as Palace of La Moncloa. The Palace passed through different owners until reaching María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Álvarez de Toledo , 13th Duchess of Alba de Tormes . After her death without descendants in 1802, King Charles IV acquired

960-616: The Germans to describe permanent structures both large ( blockhouses ), and small ( pillboxes ), and bombproof shelters both above ground (as in Hochbunker ) and below ground (such as the Führerbunker ). The military sense of the word was imported into English during World War II, at first in reference to specifically German dug-outs; according to the Oxford English Dictionary , the sense of "military dug-out;

1008-584: The Moncloa Palace and its gardens, with an area of 58,293.81 square meters and adjoining the four cardinal points with land of the University City of Madrid , was integrated into the National Heritage . The new design was adapted to the new functions assigned to the palace, which was inaugurated by Francisco Franco in 1953. On June 3, 1954, arrived the palace's first visiting foreign head of state, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo ; on November 28, 1976,

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1056-560: The Office is the Chief of Staff , which is a political appointment on which the rest of the Office officials depend. Bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. They were used extensively in World War I , World War II , and

1104-634: The Press Center. Since September 2018, the new PM ( Pedro Sánchez ) has allowed the public to visit the complex – not only the Press Room and the Council Room, but also the main buildings of the complex, including the Deputy PM's Office, the Ministry of the Presidency building and the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff's Office. There is a tradition in summertime by which the prime minister makes

1152-572: The Press Centre, where the Spokesperson and other ministers hold the press briefing after meetings of the Council of Ministers. The whole complex is composed of 16 buildings where the different services of the Prime Minister's Office are distributed, such as security, protocol, health service, etc. The Prime Minister's Office lies within the Moncloa Palace. It is staffed by a mix of career Civil Servants and Advisers. The highest ranking of

1200-512: The Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero , decided to radically renovate the private rooms. She favored a minimalist style, painting the rooms light colors, changing classic furniture for different designs (but retaining certain pieces such as the table of General Narváez, a gift from Juan Carlos I to Adolfo Suárez located in the Prime Minister's Office) and hung pictures of contemporary artists on

1248-452: The blast wave or a reflection cannot lift the edge. A bunker should have two doors. Door shafts may double as ventilation shafts to reduce digging. In bunkers inhabited for prolonged periods, large amounts of ventilation or air conditioning must be provided in order to prevent ill effects of heat. In bunkers designed for war-time use, manually operated ventilators must be provided because supplies of electricity or gas are unreliable. One of

1296-597: The cargo of a ship". In the 19th century the word came to describe a coal store in a house, or below decks in a ship. It was also used for a sand-filled depression installed on a golf course as a hazard. In the First World War the belligerents built underground shelters, called dugouts in English , while the Germans used the term Bunker . By the Second World War the term came to be used by

1344-428: The crews serving the weapons, protected the ammunition against counter-battery fire, and in numerous examples also protected the guns themselves, though this was usually a trade-off reducing their fields of fire. Artillery bunkers are some of the largest individual pre-Cold War bunkers. The walls of the ' Batterie Todt ' gun installation in northern France were up to 3.5 metres (11 ft) thick, and an underground bunker

1392-407: The early 1980s, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo installed more bedrooms on the third floor for his eight children as well as a music room. Felipe González arrived in 1982 and cultivated a small orchard of bonsais . González's major contribution, though, was the construction of an underground bunker inspired by his memory of the coup d'état attempt of February 23, 1981 . He also built a new building close to

1440-555: The government's headquarters were moved to Moncloa, it housed the Information Office. Between 1988 and 1993, and between 2000 and 2002, the building was the headquarters of a ministerial department when the Information Office was elevated to the rank of a Ministry. Currently, the building houses the Secretariat of State for Press . Among its rooms are the Press Room, where journalists have their own place to work, and

1488-563: The largest being the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas , which has 12 Gravel Gerties. Bunkers deflect the blast wave from nearby explosions to prevent ear and internal injuries to people sheltering in the bunker. While frame buildings collapse from as little as 21  kPa (3  psi ; 0.21  bar ) of overpressure , bunkers are regularly constructed to survive over 1,000 kPa (150 psi; 10 bar). This substantially decreases

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1536-401: The last one, Carlos Andrés Pérez . In 1977, Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez moved the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government, located until then in the central Villamejor Palace, to the far more remote La Moncloa. The change occurred for security reasons, in the face of concern that an attack against the young prime minister, newly appointed by King Juan Carlos I . With the new palace

1584-513: The likelihood that a bomb (other than a bunker buster ) can harm the structure. The basic plan is to provide a structure that is very strong in physical compression . The most common purpose-built structure is a buried, steel reinforced concrete vault or arch . Most expedient blast shelters are civil engineering structures that contain large, buried tubes or pipes such as sewage or rapid transit tunnels. Improvised purpose-built blast shelters normally use earthen arches or vaults. To form these,

1632-520: The mansion and the orchard and added it to the Royal Site of La Florida, which was then named the Royal Site of La Moncloa. In 1816, King Ferdinand VII ordered the restoration of the palace. Thirty years later, Queen Isabella II ceded the property of La Moncloa to the State, and it went on to become part of the Ministry of Development . The palace was restored again in 1929, when it was reopened as

1680-511: The most efficient manual ventilator designs is the Kearny Air Pump . Ventilation openings in a bunker must be protected by blast valves . A blast valve is closed by a shock wave, but otherwise remains open. One form of expedient blast valve is worn flat rubber tire treads nailed or bolted to frames strong enough to resist the maximum overpressure. Bunkers can be destroyed with powerful explosives and bunkerbusting warheads. The crew of

1728-948: The northern Czech border facing Germany (but to lesser extent all around), Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium, Alpine Wall on the north of Italy, World War II Führerbunker and in Italy, industrial Marnate's Bunker , the V-weapon installations in Germany ( Mittelwerk ) & France ( La Coupole , and the Blockhaus d'Éperlecques ) and the Cold War installations in the United States ( Cheyenne Mountain Complex , Site R , and The Greenbrier ), United Kingdom ( Burlington ), Sweden ( Boden Fortress ) and Canada ( Diefenbunker ). In Switzerland, there

1776-539: The office of the Chief of Staff , an office that was used in the 1980s by Alfonso Guerra , and before by Joaquín Garrigues Walker with prime minister Adolfo Suárez . The INIA building was built in 1953 by the architect José Azpiroz. It receives this name for having housed the National Institute of Agrarian Research (INIA). It is also known as the Monastery of the Presidency because for its resemblance to

1824-434: The presidential residence to host the Council of Ministers, dedicating the main building to serve more as the private residence of the prime minister. José María Aznar , Ana Botella , their three sons and two cocker dogs lived at Moncloa between 1996 and 2004. Aznar was responsible for the construction of a game room for his children as well as a paddle tennis court to practice his favorite sport. Sonsoles Espinosa , wife of

1872-704: The protection of the Prime Minister , Deputy Prime Minister , Government's Ministers and former Prime Ministers, along with their families. It also gives protection to the Moncloa Complex and the private and public residences of the members of the Government . The security agents come from the Civil Guard and the National Police Corps . The building was built in 1989 during the premiership of Felipe González in order to differentiate

1920-501: The residential and working areas of the palace. The Prime Minister's Office maintains an agreement with the Reina Sofía Museum under which the decoration of the building is composed of works of this museum. The artistic collection consists of more than 140 works by authors such as Joan Miró , Eduardo Chillida , Julio González , Pablo Palazuelo or Antoni Tàpies , among others. It also has numerous furniture belonging to

1968-661: The secondary uses of the very deeply dug Moscow Metro and Kyiv metro systems was as nuclear shelters). A number of facilities were constructed in China, such as Beijing 's Underground City and Underground Project 131 in Hubei ; in Albania , Enver Hoxha dotted the country with hundreds of thousands of bunkers . In the United States, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center underneath

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2016-409: The walls and floors. Nuclear bunkers must also cope with the underpressure that lasts for several seconds after the shock wave passes, and block radiation . Usually, these features are easy to provide. The overburden ( soil ) and structure provide substantial radiation shielding, and the negative pressure is usually only 1 ⁄ 3 of the overpressure. The doors must be at least as strong as

2064-410: The walls. Mariano Rajoy and his wife did not make many changes that are known beyond swapping out the vases. Before September 19, 2018, entrance to the palace by the public was not allowed. Only accredited personnel like journalists or public servants were allowed to enter, along with universities, high schools and primary schools students. These latter usually make a short tour to know the gardens and

2112-437: The walls. In bunkers inhabited for prolonged periods, large amounts of ventilation or air conditioning must be provided. Bunkers can be destroyed with powerful explosives and bunker-busting warheads . The word bunker originates as a Scots word for "bench, seat" recorded 1758, alongside shortened bunk "sleeping berth". The word possibly has a Scandinavian origin: Old Swedish bunke means "boards used to protect

2160-407: The walls. The usual design is now starting to incorporate vault doors . To reduce the weight, the door is normally constructed of steel, with a fitted steel lintel and frame. Very thick wood also serves and is more resistant to heat because it chars rather than melts. If the door is on the surface and will be exposed to the blast wave, the edge of the door is normally counter-sunk in the frame so that

2208-440: Was also established on it the official residence for the Prime Minister and his family. Since 1977, successive prime ministers have consistently ordered renovations and expansions of the complex. Adolfo Suarez ordered the construction of a tennis court and the renovation of the pool. He also ordered the old main courtyard be covered, which would later become the famous Hall of Columns. During his brief tenure as prime minister in

2256-400: Was built in 2006 under the premiership of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero . This building currently houses the Deputy Prime Minister's Office . The Seeds Building was built in 1950 as part of the Ministry of Agriculture . Its name is because it was the place where the seeds were once stored. It currently hosts the personal Cabinet of the Office of the Prime Minister . On the first floor is

2304-656: Was constructed for the V-3 cannon . Typical industrial bunkers include mining sites, food storage areas, dumps for materials, data storage, and sometimes living quarters. They were built mainly by nations like Germany during World War II to protect important industries from aerial bombardment . Industrial bunkers are also built for control rooms of dangerous activities, such as tests of rocket engines or explosive experiments. They are also built in order to perform dangerous experiments in them or to store radioactive or explosive goods. Such bunkers also exist on non-military facilities. When

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